Voice of the people (letter).

Fairer Voting

April 12, 2001|By Vicki Meyer.

Evanston — Clarence Page rants in his April 4 column about some of the horrific policies President Bush enacted in his first three months in office. But, surprisingly, he does not blame Bush or his supporters, almost half the voters in the U.S., for the devastation these policies will wreak on our environment. Rather, he blames the tiny 2 percent to 3 percent of us who voted for Ralph Nader.

Nothing could please conservatives like Bush more than to have progressive voters fighting among themselves rather than working together to change the system that brought him into office.

To start with, let's get rid of the archaic voting system that forced many voters to choose the less progressive of two candidates in the hope that their least-favorite candidate would not win, and replace it with instant runoff voting. Instant runoff voting not only allows voters to rank candidates in order according to their preferences, but also ensures that the winner has the majority of votes.

For example, progressive citizens like Page could have voted for Al Gore first and Nader second while other progressives might have switched these two positions.

When votes are counted, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated and those who voted for that candidate would have their votes go to their second choice.